The Ant and the Contact Lens!

I received this little episode from a friend of mine through an e-mail. As many of us do have similar experiences in our lives too, thought it would help in offering us some light on our life’s journey.

Brenda was a young woman who was invited to go rock climbing.  Although she was scared to death, she went with her group to a tremendous granite cliff.  In spite of her fear, she put on the gear, took a hold on the rope, and started up the face of that rock.  Well, she got to a ledge where she could take a breath.  As she was hanging on there, the safety rope snapped against Brenda’s eyes and knocked out her contact lens. 

Well, there she was on a rock ledge, with hundreds of feet below her and hundreds of feet above her.  Of course, she looked and looked and looked, hoping it had landed on the edge, but it just wasn’t there. 

Now far from home on a ledge, her sight blurry, she was feeling desperate and began to get upset.  She prayed to the Lord to help her to find it.  When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but there was no contact lens to be found.  

She sat down, despondent, with the rest of the party, waiting for the rest of them to make it up the face of the cliff.  She looked out across range after range of mountains, thinking of that Bible verse that says, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth.”  She thought, “Lord, You can see all these mountains.  You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is.  Please help me.”

Finally they walked down the trail to the bottom.  At the bottom there was a new party climbers just starting up the face of the cliff.  One of them shouted out, “Hey, you guys! Anybody lost a contact lens?”.

Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it?  An ant was moving slowly across the face of the rock, carrying it! 

Brenda told me that her father is a cartoonist.  When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a picture of an ant lugging that contact lens with the words, “Lord, I don’t know why You want me to carry this thing.  I can’t eat it, and it’s awfully heavy.   But if this is what You want me to do, I’ll carry if for you.”

At the risk of being accused of being fatalistic, I think it would probably do some of us good to occasionally say, “God, I don’t know why You want me to carry this load.  I can see no good in it and it’s awfully heavy.  But if you want me to carry it, I will.”